Sonderborg utility has drastically reduced its CO2-emissions

Since 2007 Sonderborg utility has reduced its CO2-emissions by more than 50%. If you measure the total energy reduction of the company you get a total that amounts to 74%

By Minna Hallberg, Sonderborg utility. Translated by Brian Egering.

Electric cars, solar panels on the roofs and gas engines, that transform the gas from the waste water treatment plant to electricity – Those are just some of the things, that throughout the last decade, that have contributed to a 50% CO2-reduction in Sonderborg utility. If you add the company’s energy production to that reduction you get a total reduction of 74%.

-This is not just an initiative and there is a continuing focus from both management and employees, that have made the difference, says chairman of the board at Sonderborg utility, Svend Erik Petersen. Investments have been made in new technology, but small differences have also been worked with, such as turning off the lights when leaving the office, he says.

Sonderborg utility has throughtout many years developed a special CO2-account, specially made to focus on reducing the emissions of CO2 as fast as possible, which is why they, now, proudly state that they’ve gone from an annual 17,777 tons CO2-emissions in 2007 to below 5 tons in 2016.

-The goal is for Sonderborg utility to follow the ProjectZero vision and become CO2-netrual by 20290. It’s obvious that the last 25% are hard to remove, but we have a clear strategy for how we achieve this goal, says Svend Erik Petersen.

A great example

At the ProjectZero-secretariat, CEO Peter Rathje is happy with the results of Sonderborg utility and stresses that overview, blueprint and a combination of big and small changes is what paves the way for success for the many companies in the area.

-It’s obvious that one can reach goals partially by investing in solar pants and other types of new technology, but it’s also very important to include employees in seeing and initiating energy saving projects.

Only by doing so the goal can be reached, which is what makes Sonderborg utility a great example and a role model, Peter Rathje says.